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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

[Jacob] Haqq-Misra is a researcher at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science [bmsis.org], and he recently published an essay titled “The Transformative Value of Liberating Mars” in which he argues Mars should be totally independent from the very start. “With Mars, it seems like there’s the potential to do something different with civilisation from what we’ve already done,” he told me.

The idea is simple [bbc.com]. Instead of having the humans who land and live on Mars answer back to their home planet’s companies and institutions, they should be given total independence. To ensure this independence, Haqq-Misra outlines five provisions of liberation.

First, humans who land on Mars relinquish their Earthly citizenship. They are Martians now, not Earthlings. Second, governments, companies and people on Earth cannot interfere with the politics or economics of Mars. That means no coercive trading, no economic meddling, no backdoor deals for goods or services. Third, scientific exploration of Mars can continue as long as it doesn’t interfere with whatever civilisation is developing independently. Fourth, land use on Mars must be determined by Martians. And Fifth, anything that was brought from Earth to Mars is now Martian, and Earthlings can’t ask for it back.

Haqq-Misra's friends call him "Kuato." [wikipedia.org]

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